w Vl ::::.> o ::r:: f­ � ::::.> o u A BRIEF HISTORY of LE ANON A Centennial Sl1.etch By JOSIAH }/fORROW Chairman of the Lebanon Centennial Committee Author of the Life of ThomasCoruiin History of Warren County Centennial Sketch of Warren County 1876 Aboriginal Agriculture Etc , " ,�' ' J >� LE���.Q?r· THE W,�T.:::RN STAR ptJBil�p,"�TrJ: C).'I\PAN'r 1902 Pioneers on Turtlecreek HE beautitul valley of Turtlecreek � was seen by whitemen more than a ���� c� . �' dozen sears before any of the � T:': � white race 'settled in it. Three � � � � armies marched against the Indians � t\:': through this valley, and after John � :.:' Cleves Symmes purchased the land :':1�1'@�1'(j)_�� b.etween the two Mian�is for sixty­ ���""@./)(tV{!!) SIX cents per acre, h1S surveyors began the work of surveying the tract into sections in 1789. Judge Symmes in an early letter to hIS associate, Jonathan Dayton, wrote of the great fertility of the Military range in "which to-day are Lebanon, Union Vil­ lage and Hamilton. The eminent general, George Rogers Clark, led two expeditions against the Indians on the upper waters of the Miamis from the site of Cincinnati. The first of these was in August, 1780, when he passed along Turtlecreek and crossed to the east side of the Little Miami; the second was in 1782 when he passed west of the site of Lebanon and crossed Mad river near the site of Dayton. In each of these expeditions there were about one thousand men, chiefly Kentuckians. The last and largest of the armies which marched through the valley was led by General Josiah Harmar who was the successor of Wash­ ington and Knox as commander of the United States army, though his rank was lieutenant colonel and he was general-in-chief by brevet. He had under his command the whole of 4 the available force of the regular army which consisted, however, of only 320 troops; these were reenforced by Kentucky and Penn­ sylvania militia to the nnmber of 1,133 making an army of 1,453. General Harrnar ordered Colonel Hardin with six hundred of the Ken­ tucky troops to set. ont from Ft. Washington and advance along Clurks old trace about twenty-five miles and there to halt for further orders. Colonel Hardin moved 011 September 26, 1'190 and proceeded to - T.nrtlecl't'ek a short distance west of where Lebanon now is and en­ camped. General Harpiar commenced his march from Cincinnati on September :30, and on the morning of October 3, arrived at the camp of Colonel Hardin on 'I'urtlecreek. The two commands webe then united and marched eastward only about one mile and encamped at some point now within the limits of Lebanon. The next morning at half past nine the army moved in a northeast direction and after marching about eight miles, at three o'clock crossed the Little Miami about a mile below Caesar's creek. The route of this army from Cincinnati to the Little Miami was, for the most part, the same that General Clark had followed ten years before; it was known to the early settlers as Harmar's trace and was one of their principal roads. It passed along the south side of 'I'ur­ tlecreek and was distinctly traceable ten years after the army passed over it. Turtlecreek and Muddycreek had been named before the date of this expedition, and are both mentioned in the journal of Captain John Armstrong which gives a detailed account of Harmar's move­ ments. The men who served in these expeditions 5 and the explorers of the lands between the Miamis spread abroad a knowledge of the fer­ tility and the delightful character of the 'I'ur­ tlecreek valley but the hostility of tho Indians long deluved the settlement. On September 21, 1795 \Villitllll Beclle, from Ne\v Jersey, set out from one of the stations neal' Cincinnati with a wagon, tools and provisions and followed Har­ mar's trace to his lands where he built a block­ house as a protection against the Indians who might not respect Waynes treaty of peace made the preceding month. Bedle's station was five miles west of Lebanon and has usual­ ly been regarded as the first permanent settle­ ment in "Warren county. Here several families lived in much simplicity, their clothing being made largely of deer -ikin.. As soon as it was known that "Wayne had secured a permanent peace with the Indians, those who had purchased lands between the Miamis prepared to settle upon them. Cabins to the number of twenty-five had been built in Deerfield before February 1, 17gG. John Shaw erected the first cabin in the vicinity of Leba­ non in the autumn or winter of 1'i'95; it stood near where the water-works plant now stands. Henry Taylor and Samuel Gallaher were among the earliest settlers west of Lebanon. Gallaher was a rnill- wright and built for Mr. Taylor on Turtlecreek one of the first mills in Warren county. It stood a short distance west of the present boundary of Lehanon and was completed a year or two after the first settle­ ment. Francis Dunlevy settled west of Leba­ non in 1797. Among the early settlers east of Lebanon were Samuel Manning, John Osborne, DaniAl Banta. Jacob Trimble, "\Villiam Dill, Patrick Meloy and several brothers named Bone. 6 Ichabod Corwin, uncle of Governor Cor­ win, was the first settler on the ground on which Lebanon stands. He had resided for a short time in Bourbon county, Kentucky, and when pursuing Indians with a party of Ken­ tuckians, had first seen and admired the lands on Turtlecreek, and before the close of the In­ dian wars purchased the half section on which is now the northwest part of Lebanon. The exact site of his first cabin, the first habitation of white men in Lebanon, is known : it was on the ridge between the cemetery and the Dayton pike, about one hundred yards "vest of the bridge over the north branch of Tnrtlecreek. It was early in the spring of 1796 that he brought his family to their home in the wilder­ ness. Having cleared about twelve acres near his cabin, in the spring of 1796 he planted the first corn crop grown in Lebanon. Before it could be cultivated the Indians stole all his horses, and he returned to Kentucky and bought a yoke of oxen with which he culti­ vated his corn, which surprised him in the autumn by yielding one hundred bushels to the acre. Ichabod Corwin died in 1834 aged sixty­ seven years and on his tombstone we read: , 'The deceased w as the first settler on the place where Lebanon now stands, March A. D. 1796". Hon. Moses B. Corwin, of Urbana, was the eldest Ron of this pioneer, and at the time of the removal of the family he was six years old. Fifty years later he wrote: "I have a perfect recollection of how things looked at that time, of our suffering with the cold in the woods be­ low Bedle's station, and of the Indians stealing our horses soon after we arri ved, and of fath­ er's starting on foot to Cincinnati to buy oxen. These were my happiest days." 7 In 1798, Matthias Corwin, father of Thom­ as, settled on a farm northeast of Lebanon, his mother, brothers and sisters accompanying him from Kentucky. Thomas was at this time about four years old. During most of the winter and. spring of 1798-\:J a band of Indians were encamped on the hillside south of the Cincinnati pike and in the south-western part of Lebanon. They en­ camped for a short time for several succeeding springs in the vicinity for the purpose of mak­ ing sugar in the sugar-tree groves. Thomas Corwin in Congress said of the pioneers: "The hardy race that has subdued the forests of the west, and in their green youth have constructed monuments of their enterprise that shall survive the pyramids, is not likely, from merely sordid mo­ tives, to join in inflicting a great evil on any portion of our common country. The fearless pioneers of the west, whose ears are as fa­ miliar with the sharp crack of the Indian's rifle and his wild war­ whoop at midnight as are those of your city dandies with the dulcet notes of the harp and piano, they, sir, are not the men to act upon selfish calculations and sinister inducements," Beginnings of Lebanon Lebanon was laid out in September, 1802, the month preceding the election of delegates in the Northwest Territory to form a. constitution for a new state. The primevul forests cov­ ered nearly all the original plat ann grow­ ing luxuriantly in the deep, cool shade were thickets of spice bushes (benzoin odoriferum) almost as impencrrahle as the canebrakes of Kentuoky, and like the cane, this undergrowth has dis» ppeured f'rom our forests wifh the ad­ vance of civilization. The spice bushes were greut impediments in snrvoying and clearing the lund. 'I'boy wore l�1)Ul1c1tlnt ira Lebanon long af'tor it becn,�w ,1 county seat. Their yellow flowers UllPt'ared in the early spring, next came the 1t:.rge, hnl1(1:-011w leaves and last small clus­ ters of h'1_'�'ies 'xhioh ripened into a def'p red in September. The herrios were sometimes used ins teud of a 11:-'1'10e; a decoction from the leayes made a gently stlmulating chink used in low fevers, and the shrub was often called the fever bush.